kalel wrote:
Their finances are fine though no? They had a billionaire owner who died and left them everything.

Thought that was being challenged by billionaire owner's hard-headed offspring? And anyway that's not the point, it's morally right for a football club to live within its means (yeah yeah I am an unrealistic fool).

Off topic, but West Brom are about to play their second friendly in a row against Sacramento Republic FC (it's not one of those big-money US tours - this team only signed their first player in April, and they play in the "third tier" in a nation without relegation or promotion). I'm nevertheless excited, however, because Sacramento Republic broadcast all their matches live on Youtube, and this one is no exception.

In the first friendly, Graham Dorrans scored a penalty in the first half, and their main commentator, who was enthusiastic but a bit off on his terminology, proceeded to call it "a free kick" for the rest of the match whenever he talked about it, culminating in... well.

PES_Fanboy wrote:
Maybe the biggest fuck up of Fergie's last few years was Pogba, he'd be absolutely perfect.

I do wonder which team has the best all-time "players we couldn't make work" list? Man Utd would have to be right up there, with Pogba, Pique, Forlan... even Giuseppe Rossi was the top scorer in Serie A last season before he got injured.

I'd say probably not. Stam was a big player at Man Utd (IIRC - I only really properly got into football in the 2001-02 season), which makes him more of a "we miss his contributions" than a "if only we knew" situation. Pogba, Pique and Rossi barely got a chance, and Forlan played a lot but just didn't work out for them.

Will Southampton have any players left at the start of the season? I can see them going down if they carry on like this. I thought Norwich had bought some decent foreigners last season and look what happened there. Shaw, Lovren, Chambers, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Lambert and Oswaldo have left or are likely to leave. That's seven first-team players and Rodriguez will probably leave in January if he recovers in time.

Yeah, but at the same time they got LOADS of money for it. Including loans that ended, we (West Brom) have lost 10 senior players (well 12, technically, but Scott Allan never played for us in the league, and George Thorne's last league appearance for us was before last season), all of them on a free, other than Thorne, who we sold for ~£2m. We had literally zero senior full backs left.

When the initial exodus of players happened at the end of last season, I predicted on here we'd probably finish 20th this upcoming season. Even now, having brought in Lescott, Gardner and Chris Baird on frees, Andre Wisdom on loan, and a couple of cash signings with Pocognoli and Brown Ideye (along with more signings to come. Another full back is expected on Saturday) I think I'd be happy if we just avoided relegation.

If we can manage that with just £2m income from player sales having lost 10-12 senior players, Southampton should be alright. I think they'll spend well but sensibly, and they'll finish higher than a lot expect.